Angels of Thanatos, A short fanfic Options

[Knossos]

A Vulcan Bomber taking off at RAF Scampton.

"Tower, this is Blue Dragon 3, ready for taxi, over."

"Roger, Blue dragon, this is tower, you are number 3 to take off. Over."

"Roger tower, lining up."

Major Terrence Briggs eased up on the control stick as he guided the large and bulky Vulcan on the semi-damaged airstrip of RAF Scampton. Although Russian air raids are starting to lessen every day due to Raptor and Harrier patrols, a big one got through the patrols and the land-based defenses, most of the squadrons were targeted at RAF bases, with three managing to reach Lincolnshire RAF bases. The rest that got through attacked the ports on the Thames, to no avail; there aren't many ships there left to be attacked, and supplies were too hidden and too scattered to affect the operation of the ports in the Thames.

He looked forward, making sure that his plane was in line with the runway. "We're looking good, skipper. Looks like there's no problems here." His copilot, a sergeant named Johannes Vorden observed. "Dear old chap," Briggs commented, "I'm bloody sure we don't have problems here. Over France, however..."

The environment in the cockpit suddenly turned grim. The pilot and his copilot did not talk until they crossed the English Channel and over the dangerous skies of France.

****

Meanwhile, in the skies of Pas-de-Calais, three Su-37 Berkuts trolled around in an eight-figure pattern. The drivers were tense yet bored at the same time; the mission was critical, but the 4-hour lull and encountering nothing more than the occasional flock of pigeons would surely bore any kind of fighter pilot.


"Kapitan, see anything?" said one.

"I don't see shit."


****

"Heads up gentlemen." Briggs called to the crew of his Vulcan. "Berkuts up ahead."

Blue Dragon 3 flew the mission without any intended escort so that they wouldn't track any attention. However, either by happenstance or by some other way, those Berkuts staked out his flight path. They don't have any fuel to reroute the mission, nor wouldn't they tolerate mission failure.

Have to think through this.... Briggs said to himself.

"Warning! Microwave beams up ahead!"

Briggs made a slight maneuver to starboard as he watched the light spectacle unfold. In a short period of time, nine beams of directed microwaves found three targets. They all succumbed to the heat within mere seconds, with one spontaneously combusting while in the air.

"God bless them whoever manned those Wotans. Now, men, let's do our job."

[Svea Rike]

Very nice!

[Rohan]

A very nice fan fiction. In my opinion, The constant tension of the pilots and the sudden introduction of the Wotans really are the good points of this fanfic.

[Knossos]

Due to the good reviews, I will now finish this short fanfic.

Sergeant Louisa Arado opened up the rear hatch of their Wotan. She looked at the large, white whale flying above them. She looked at the tail and said, "You're welcome, XM558." She closed the hatch and went to her place at the driver's compartment. "Are they good?" Asked his platoon commander. " "Yep, they're good." She answered back. She grabbed the controls and retreated back to the supply base at Dordogne.

********

Colonel Ivan Sergeyevich Kravchenko waited in the cold, dark cabin of his Topol-M Launcher. His two crewmen, Abramovich and Sinyavsky, sat at their control consoles, waiting for the control codes that would signify a launch somewhere. They were tense; their position was repeatedly bombarded by Eurofighters with cluster munitions, and even one managed to drop nerve gas canisters on them! Luck, and some skillful hiding allowed them to survive up until this day.

The high-command radio, or the Doom radio as they called it, beeped three times. Abramovich and Sinyavsky immediately set up for decoding work. Although thoroughly unbreakable, one-time pads are ridiculously hard to decode, especially if you have nothing but a pad, a pencil and the codebook.

As Kravchenko looked on their work, his hand went to his launch control key tied at his neck. It would now be his third time to use it. Although cautious, General Zhukov was perfectly willing to use nuclear arms, but only if a conventional attack would cause immense casualties to his remaining forces on the field. Luckily, he didn't have to expend any missiles at all for that megalomaniac Aleksandr; that one b*tch of a general was perfectly willing to send his forces on a nuclear meat grinder!

"Colonel, decoding complete." Sinyavsky said politely. He gave Kravchenko a pad with some pencil writings on it. It read;

KALININGRAD TO STOPWATCH

LAUNCH AT 0754 HOURS STOP AFTER LAUNCH RETREAT TO LOCATION ANNA NIKOLAY IVAN ASAP STOP BE CAREFUL AND GODSPEED STOP END SENDS ZHUKOV

Kravchenko sighed. He was the Aide-de-camp of General Zhukov long before he was forcefully rotated to the Strategic Rocket Forces. But at least, I am still working for my General, He observed. He looked at his men with steely determination, and said, "Comrades, we have a duty to do."

They rushed to their positions as they started the launch sequence.

"Abramovich?"

"At station, sir!"

"Sinyavsky?"

"At station, sir!"

"Very well."

Unlike what movies show, the Russian nuclear control key system wasn't just two people, it was actually three. The Launch control officer, Abramovich, turns his key to arm the missile igniter. The Deputy Adjutant, Sinyavsky, then turns his key, arming the missile warhead itself. Before launching, all three of them must have their fingers pressed on the dead hand switch, or else the missile would self-destruct. That would be the time when Kravchenko would turn his key. Needless to say, all three consoles are too far apart to be manned by one man alone.

"Launch officer?"

"Set!"

Beep.

"Deputy Adjutant?"

"Set!"

Beep.

"Dead hand controls."

WARNING! WARNING! LAUNCH IMMINENT.

Kravcheko looked at the inserted key before him. As always, he thought about the slaughter he was about to unleash. But, like a good soldier, he will follow his orders.

He turned the key, and they felt the massive lurch of the missile leaving its tube.

****

"Skipper! SKIPPER!"

"What is it?!" Briggs let his copilot drive the bomber for a few minutes, and disaster strikes. Why now?!

"Skipper! Look, their's our Russkie target!"

He looked to the place where his copilot was pointing. Sure enough, the single Topol-M in France they were supposed to hunt was there, not at Meung-sur-Loire, as the intelligence people dictated. Damn those cheese-eating bastards! He cursed in his mind.

"Bombardier! Ready for drop?!"

"Sure thing sir!"

Although their hasty drop solution will overshoot their target by several meters, nuclear bombs, of course, don't give a sh*t about accuracy.

"BOMBS AWAY!"

Briggs felt his Vulcan float upwards for a bit as the heavy Neutron Bomb lurched away from the plane.

****

"Colonel, look!"

Kravchenko was alerted by Sinyavsky too late. He felt the Topol-M flip as he disintegrated into heavy slag.

****

"Skipper, that Russkie just launched a nuke!"

Briggs looked at the arrow with fire on its end going upwards. "Boys, we can't do anything about that." He quietly observed.

****

Although most ballistic missiles need at most thirty minutes to reach their supposed targets, that was the time when nukes were target at countries across the Atlantic. Now that the target is just kilometers away from the air, it only took them three minutes.

****

Sergeant Arado was looking at her battery gauges when a flash of light emanated from Dordogne. As human eyes are drawn to light, she looked.

Oh no.

[Svea Rike]

Wait, wait, so the Russians did launch their nukes? I am not sure that would have happened, but okay. Nice story!

[MARS]

Basically, I'll leave it up to everyone else to make up their own idea of exactly how many tactical nuclear weapons were used in that war and even though Zhukov is supposed to be a sane, dutiful General unlike Aleksandr, he would be just as able to use his nukes on legitimate military targets as the ECA. Naturally, both Russia and the ECA still want to avoid countervalue strikes as they would likely result in a total escalation. A future update will actually elaborate on this subject.

[SpiralSpectre]

The Ruskies are having their a*s handed down to them by sci-fi tech and they got nuked/neutroned first. Now they are about to lose everything and they naturally would give it everything they got to try to prevent that. While they obviously wouldn't launch controversial, inconsiderate strikes it'll be hard for them not to target high value legit military targets. They are desperate, and perhaps (it's still a big perhaps) for the first time in this war they have moral justification for their actions.